Restoration
by Kahva
Summary: Young Will vignette, COMPLETE. When all seems to have been torn away, Will finds something that no one can ever take from him.


_**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of it, durn it all. Bruckheimer, Verbinski, The Mouse – Dang it, they own it all! About the only thing I own besides all the stuff that's in my apartment is my mind, and that is currently on loan to me courtesy of my muse harem, the letter 'R', and the number 28.34985734879. April 2005._

_**Author's notes:** This was originally supposed to be a 100-word drabble waaaaaaay back in March of 2004. It started out at 168 words, slimmed down to 125 words, then it threw a temper tantrum. "I'm a VIGNETTE, blast it all! Fill me out!" This, folks, is what happens when you don't feed your fics enough double pepperoni pizza and Mountain Dew. You get a drabble with attitude and serious anger management issues. Anyways, the original drabble challenge was the theme of 'faith' on ErinRua's "The Black Pearl Sails Fanfiction" Yahoo group. This fic can be considered a prequel, of sorts, to my fics "To See You Again" and "To Know You Again", if you like. It's young Will's pov. I've only just this April found this tantrum-throwing drabble and have finally finished it, and made it into a vignette as it so desired to be. It's glaring at me for having lost it, and I've got the feeling I'm gonna need to buy it a 3-liter Mountain Dew to fully appease it._

_If you've read me before, you should already know not to be pettin' that cursed monkey. Please keep your arms and legs inside the ride until the fic comes to a complete and total stop. Thanks for shopping in the Will Turner Smithy, and when using power tools, please remember to wear your safety glasses._

_BTW… Number 28.34985734879, in protest of low-fat chocolate cheesecake made with tofu, wants to be known from now on as "Bob". Thank you._

RESTORATION

BY

KAHVA

I'm watching the officer on the quarterdeck, though I'm not so sure I'm supposed to be back here. He's tall, and looks so strong to me. He's calm, too. Unshakably calm.

He's so calm, and I'm shaking like a leaf in the wind. How does he do it?

He's got something around him… It is as if he's glowing with power and control. "Truly an imposing figure if there ever was one," the captain of my old ship would say, I think. Even out here in the middle of the ocean, his dark blue coat is crisp, sharp and clean, just like his commands to the crew. He never sounds cross or cruel, though. Doesn't sound that way to me, at least. That officer is someone to be reckoned with, a "man of quality", as the governor likes to say. Someone I can respect.

Someone I hope I can be like when I'm older.

I don't mean a naval officer… I know I can never be that. I don't have anyone who can buy a place for me. I don't think my father earns nearly enough as a merchant marine to do it. I think if he did, the people back home wouldn't have looked at Mother and me the way they did all the time, as if they felt sorry for us. For all their looks and stares, you would think that someone would have worried about me enough to try and keep me from sailing to find my father, but no one did. It was almost like they wanted me to leave.

So I left. I begged my way onto a ship as a cabin boy, all to find my father. He has to be here somewhere – the Caribbean can't be all that big, can it? You're out here somewhere, aren't you, Father? You're all I have left, I have to find you, I have to tell you about Mother. You won't find out for a very long time, I fear, if I don't find you soon and tell you.

If I can even find you… Where are you, Father?

I've wandered up to the bow of the H.M.S. Dauntless now. Funny, but I don't remember walking up here. The water is so blue, there's hardly a cloud in the sky… So unlike three days ago, when those pirates attacked. One of them chased after me with a grappling hook, he ripped the back of my shirt and vest a little with it. I suppose that's when I lost my father's medallion. That pirate is still chasing me in my dreams. In my dreams, I run from the Lucky Lady and straight into the middle of my village. I'm screaming for help, but no one moves to help me. They all just stare and nod sadly, like they did at Mother's funeral. They don't care about me at all. I used to believe in those people…

There's one person who steps from the crowd, though. There's one person who cares. "I'm watching over you, Will," she says to me.

_ Miss Swann… Elizabeth…_

Then that tall, proud officer I was watching earlier, the officer who has been so kind to me, he appears. He chases that pirate with the grappling hook out of my home village and back to his dark ship. He chases him to this ship, the Dauntless. He chases that ugly pirate and fights him until he goes away. Then I'm lying on the deck again, soaking wet, wrapped in a blanket, with Miss Swann looking down at me. "I'm watching over you Will," she says again, and smiles.

She smiles like my mother.

Why did my mother have to die?

Why did my father have to leave us?

I've lost faith in a lot of things, and in a lot of people as of late. I've just simply _lost_ so much, I don't have anything more to lose other than my life.

Well, I do have something. Both Governor Swann and his daughter have promised to look out for me, Miss Swann has promised several times in fact. Perhaps she's right, and I'll find my father in Port Royal.

But what if I don't? What do I have then? The Governor can't take me in, and Miss Swann… Elizabeth… she can't watch over me forever. I've lost everything, if I can't find my father, what do I truly have anymore? Why am I alone?

"Don't worry Mr. Turner," the officer's voice cuts into my thoughts. I have no idea when he joined me here. The hand he puts on my shoulder is strong, like my father's. Reassuring, like my mother's. "The pirates who attacked your ship shall one day pay for their crimes. This, I can promise you."

I smile up at him then. I know I'm not smiling much, I wish I could smile more, but this is the first time I've felt that I could smile at all. Something has just been restored to me, a small something that no one, not even a pirate can take from me, not ever.

_ Faith._ I now have faith in Lieutenant James Norrington. "Thank you, sir."


End file.
